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Labor Issues

Repeal the prevailing wage law. Enact additional reforms to the unemployment and workers compensation systems, reforms that target cost drivers in both. Make Pennsylvania a right to work state by securing the right of employees to decide for themselves whether to join or financially support a union.

What’s going on with the Tresco Paving Company, an open shop contractor in Westmoreland County, is sadly emblematic of a culture in Pennsylvania that has us languishing near the bottom in an annual economic competitiveness ranking, Rich States, Poor States, by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

The self-created image of public sector unions as the protector-of-the-little guy is being expertly debunked by a new reform group. A series of legal actions brought by the Harrisburg-based public interest law center, The Fairness Center, reveal an ugly pattern of union bullying and trampling over laws and individual rights. The cases show that unions are really about squashing potential competitive challenges (like charter schools) and forcing workers, who oppose joining a union, to pay dues to support political candidates and activities - a direct violation of state law.

The corruption trial of former Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, is pulling back the curtain on some of the cozy relationships and lucrative transactions involving lawyers representing victims of asbestos exposure.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review recently reported that LCB officials insisted the newspaper go through the state’s Right-to-Know process (RTK) for information that was already clearly a matter of public record. Reporter Kari Andren asked the LCB’s press secretary for basic information regarding a former employee but board members directed the press office not to release the information unless Andren filed a formal request with the state’s Right-to-Know office.

The Republican-controlled House plans to take up a pension reform bill in early to mid-May, caucus sources say. The vote will set the stage for working with a Senate Republican majority that is equally committed to reform, and a potential conflict with Governor Tom Wolf who has downplayed the gravity of the public pension crisis.

The news coverage surrounding the trial and conviction of Ironworkers Local 401 boss Joseph Dougherty on federal extortion charges last month highlighted, in graphic detail, the reprehensible activity of some unions against merit shop contractors. It’s safe to say he didn’t intend it, but Dougherty has become the most influential advocate for proposed legislation in Harrisburg to give state prosecutors the means to target union violence.

The conviction last week of former Ironworkers boss Joseph Dougherty on federal criminal charges is being heralded by business leaders as no less than the beginning of the end of organized labor thuggery in Philadelphia, and nationwide.

In his four statewide campaigns for public office, Tom Corbett presented himself as the candidate who would make the tough decisions and do the right thing. As he now concludes a decade of public service to our Commonwealth, he has proven himself to be a man of his word.

The president’s infatuation with his perception of social and economic progress requires a lot more power than the Constitution affords the White House. The results of the mid-term elections apparently have not deterred the administration’s over reach for power. At a meeting with congressional leaders following the recent elections, the President threatened yet again to side-step Congress and sign an executive order regarding illegal immigration; essentially granting full amnesty.